Plan Mexico… or Plan Roger Noreiga?

Plan Mexico? Riiiight.

There has been some mention of a Plan Mexico in the Mexican press, but mostly in the form of denials by the government. The conservative Latin American news blog, Bloggings by Boz, tipped me off to this story (from the Houston Chronicle, with a by-line by Pablo Bachelet):

WASHINGTON — Mexican President Felipe Calderon, locked in a bloody confrontation with drug cartels, is negotiating a massive counter-drug aid package with the Bush administration worth hundreds of millions of dollars, several officials say.

Officials on both sides are working out the details of a package that resembles a U.S. aid plan for Colombia. The talks have been taking place quietly for several months and will be a central item on the agenda when President Bush and Calderon are expected to meet in Quebec Aug. 20-21.

Mexican officials have been reluctant to go public with the discussions, mindful of anti-U.S. sentiments harbored by many Mexicans.

But the conservative Calderon believes he has little choice but to enlist U.S. help given the cross-border nature of drug trafficking and the ruthlessness of Mexico’s drug gangs, officials and observers said.

U.S. officials would say little other than to acknowledge the discussions.

…officials view the talks as a bold initiative by Calderon that underscores his resolve to tame drug-related violence — most of it between rival cartels — that has cost the lives of 3,000 Mexicans in the past year alone and forced the intervention of 20,000 federal troops.

“I think the Mexicans realize it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Roger Noriega, a former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere and now with the American Enterprise Institute think tank.

“They can’t do this alone, and should not have to do this alone,” Noriega said.

…

People familiar with the talks say Mexico drew up a list of needs that included equipment, training and technology, including Black Hawk helicopters, which are difficult to come by given the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The price tag on the more ambitious aspiration is $1.2 billion, but a more modest proposal has emerged in recent weeks in the area of $700 million, said one person familiar with the talks.

Roger Noriega might ring a bell:

Roger Noriega, the former assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs known for his meddling in the internal affairs of many Latin American and Caribbean nations, now issues proclamations about U.S.-Latin America policy from his perch at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Noriega, who coordinates AEI’s program on Western Hemisphere affairs, is an outspoken proponent of free trade and U.S. hegemony in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In his description of U.S.-Latin American affairs, Noriega strikes an alarmist note. According to Noriega, we are witnessing “a battle for the heart and soul of the Americas”—between those on one side “who treat democracy as an inconvenience and see free markets as a threat” and those on the other side of this hemispheric contest “who see democratic institutions and the rule of law as indispensable to prosperity and liberty.”

Note that for Noriega, “free markets” (i.e., U.S. sales) and democracy are one and the same. Noriega made himself odious in the State Department by screwing up U.S. relations with Haiti and Venezuela (the #3 oil exporter to the U.S.) by objecting to democracy in those countries and subverting their elective governments.

Given that the Mexican “war on drugs” was more smoke than fire, and only a short term rationale for using the military as police, the trend in all of Latin America away from U.S. economic and social control, the Calderón administration’s very old-fashioned “neo-liberalismo” and the questionable activities of U.S. drug agents in Mexico, there is no support for this within the Republic. The only reason I can see this being pushed is to sell military equipment, and to shore up Calderón’s dubiously elected – but pro-U.S. — government .

If I find credible support from other than Noriega, I’ll let you know. I’m looking.